Annabeth, Makeup, and Fireworks
by Silvertongue90
Summary: What happens when a certain daughter of Aphrodite convinces Annabeth to wear makeup? What will Percy's reaction be? The fun never ends at Camp Half-Blood! One-shot. Percabeth.


**This was a random idea that kept floating in my head and I finally decided to write it down. Anywhoo, please read and review. This one-shot is supposed to happen before Annabeth's and Percy's forgotten first date. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. All credit goes to Rick Riordan, who is an awesome writer!**

* * *

_Annabeth, Makeup, and Fireworks_

"Come on, Annabeth," Silena pleaded. "Just a little bit, I promise I won't put on much."

"No!" Annabeth shouted. "Absolutely not! I refuse!"

"Percy will think you're a knockout," the daughter of Aphrodite tried to tempt her. "I'll bet he'll ask you to the fireworks tonight."

Annabeth glared at Silena. "I don't care what Percy thinks."

Secretly, she wondered if Percy would ask her to the fireworks if she wore just a little bit of makeup. What was she thinking? Never in a million years would Silena go anywhere near her with that stuff. Annabeth kept repeating to herself that she didn't care what Percy thought.

Silena tried a different tactic. "You're very beautiful, Annabeth, and makeup will highlight your features."

"I don't care," Annabeth remained persistently stubborn.

Silena sighed to herself.

Now was the time to use her last resort. She gave Travis and Connor the signal they'd been waiting for while goofing around near their cabin. Silena knew Annabeth's fatal flaw was pride and she was going to use her flaw against her to get Annabeth to wear makeup. Maybe even a new set of clothes.

The Stoll brothers had readily agreed to help the daughter of Aphrodite for the price of a small bag of drachmas. The dark haired teenager surreptitiously watched as they bounded over to the two girls.

"What's up?" Connor asked.

"Nothing," Annabeth replied at the same time Silena answered, "Annabeth refuses to let me put makeup on her."

Travis winked at his brother conspiratorially. "Then she probably doesn't want to know what we overheard Percy say to Grover."

They made as if it leave.

"What did Percy say?" Annabeth tried to sound casual and only slightly uninterested. She didn't want to apppear too eager.

"What will you give us to tell you?" Connor grinned.

"I won't bribe the Apollo kids to curse the Hermes cabin with bad haiku for a day," Annabeth suggested.

"Fair enough," Travis hurriedly said before Connor could protest. "He told Grover he wishes you would wear makeup sometimes."

"You made that up!" Annabeth accused.

Silena rolled her eyes. Maybe she should have gone over their lines with them. Annabeth would never believe _that._

"Honest!" Connor said. "We heard him say that!" He shoved Travis. "Tell her what we said to Percy."

Travis shook his head and grinned. "Nah, she'd get mad at us."

Annabeth frowned suspiciously. "Why would I get mad at you?"

"Because—" Travis clamped his hand over his brother's mouth.

"Tell me!" Annabeth demanded.

Travis sighed dramatically and removed his hand.

"We told him you didn't have the guts to wear makeup," Connor blurted out.

Silena groaned and clapped her slender hand to her forehead. "All right, you can go now." She started to shoo them away, seething inside at their pathetic attempts to wound Annabeth's pride.

"Wait!" Annabeth stopped her. "What did Percy say after that?"

Travis shrugged. "He said, 'I guess you're right'."

Annabeth's hands clenched into fists. "I have the guts to wear makeup, but I think it's stupid and a waste of valuable time."

"Right," Conner smirked. "So says the girl who doesn't have the guts to wear makeup."

"I don't need to wear makeup!"

The Stoll brothers held up their hands simultaneously. "It's not our fault everyone thinks you're too scared to put on a little makeup."

"Everyone?" Annabeth turned to give Silena a hard look.

"Well," Silena seemed to choose her words with care. "Why else would you refuse to let me put some on you?"

"Some friend you are," Annabeth scowled. "I'll show you. I'll show Percy and all of you that I'm not scared. Come on Silena." With that Annabeth purposely marched toward the Aphrodite cabin.

"You two are geniuses!" Silena squealed excitedly. "At first I didn't think it was going to work, but—wow!"

"Of course we're geniuses," Travis held out his hand. "Our payment?"

Silena handed him a bag of drachmas and planted a kiss on their cheeks, smearing lipstick on them. They looked slightly dazed, then hurriedly wiped the lip print off.

"Ah, gross!"

Silena laughed at them and dashed off to catch up with Annabeth.

* * *

"I feel ridiculous," Annabeth self-consciously tugged on her new way-too-short shorts.

"You look gorgeous!" Silena gushed.

"I look like a flamingo," Annabeth touched her equally pink spaghetti shoulder strap blouse.

"Percy will love the new look," Silena reminded her.

Annabeth made a face at her reflection. She hardly recognized the girl grimacing back. Silena had curled her hair and piled it high, leaving some curls around her ear and—did Silena call that a little makeup? It looked like tons to Annabeth. Leave it to a daughter of Aphrodite to not know what a little bit of makeup means.

"I've changed my mind," Annabeth said.

She heard snickering in the cabin, but ignored it, stepping toward the bathroom.

"You can't," Silena steered her away from the bathroom. "It's only an hour until the fireworks start. Go find Percy."

"It would have been simpler if we had used a love spell," Drew said condescendingly. Silena shot her a glare and hustled Annabeth out of the cabin. Annabeth tried to run away, but Silena had a firm grip on her.

"Trust me, you look beautiful."

"I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb," Annabeth muttered.

A child of Hephaestus walked by and glanced at her, then stopped in his tracks, gaping.

Annabeth felt her face heat up. "What are you staring at?"

"Uh, nothing," he hurried away, but turned to look back at her and collided into a tree.

Silena giggled.

"Oh gods! This is humiliating."

"Almost there," Silena wrapped her arm around Annabeth's waist.

They were headed toward the Arena where Percy spent most of his free time, sword fighting. They found him practicing with Michael Yew from Apollo cabin. Michael held his sword up like he was afraid it would bite him. So Percy couldn't have been getting much practice.

Silena disappeared as Annabeth nervously walked over to the two boys. Both of them stopped and stood there with their mouths hanging open. Annabeth gave Michael a go-away look and he took off.

"Shut your mouth, Seaweed Brain, before you attract flies."

Percy closed his mouth, but his eyes were still bugged out. "Annabeth?"

"Who else would it be?"

Percy blinked several times. "Are you wearing makeup and pink clothes?"

"Yes," she said shortly. Percy continued to stare and she became nervous again. Annabeth tugged on her shorts and pulled out her sword. "Are we just going to stand here or are we going to fight?"

Still too stunned to say anything, Percy held up Riptide and Annabeth swung.

She disarmed him in ten seconds.

"What's the matter with you? Normally I don't beat you this fast." Percy shook his head and still didn't speak, which was unlike him. If this were a normal day he would have laughed and said he'd surrendered on purpose.

Finally he broke his silence. "Why are you dressed like that?"

Annabeth shoved her sword into the ground. "I thought you wanted me to wear makeup and dress like this."

Percy blinked again. "I don't know where you heard that."

"You mean I am wearing this stupid outfit for nothing?"

Percy blushed and cuffed the dirt with his shoe. "Well, I think you, um, look nice and all, but you don't look like Annabeth. You look like an Aphrodite wannabe."

They stared at each other, then Annabeth laughed and Percy gave her a puzzled smile. "I'm going to kill Travis and Connor, maybe even Silena while I'm at it."

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter," Annabeth shrugged.

"Chiron might think it matters when some of the campers go missing," Percy joked.

They heard quiet chatting growing louder and turned to see couples heading for the beach to watch the fireworks. Annabeth glanced back at Percy. She saw he was rubbing his head and blushing.

"What?"

"So, um…want to go to the fireworks with me?" He made eye contact with her and blushed again. "As a friend of course."

Annabeth smiled. "Sure Seaweed Brain, let me change my clothes and wash this stuff off first."

"All right, I'll meet you there."

Annabeth ran to her cabin, scrubbed her face and soaked her hair to get the curls out, then tossed on some jeans and a t-shirt. She stood in front of the mirror and smiled. She felt much better.

At the beach she found Percy sitting with Grover and sat between them. "Hey Grover!"

Grover chewed on a can and flashed her a smile. "What's this I hear about you wearing makeup and pink clothes?"

Annabeth glared at Percy and he held up his hands. "I didn't tell him.

"I heard it from some kid of Hephaestus," Grover said casually. "Actually, I heard it from a dryad. Apparently he was so shook up he ran into her tree. She was really upset with him and all he could do was babble that he had seen you wearing a pink outfit and makeup."

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear, especially when it comes to something as stupid as that about me."

Grover shrugged and bit into another can.

Percy looked at her out of the corner of his eye and Annabeth gave him a tentative smile.

He grinned, before turning his attention to the sky as it started to light up in multiple colors.

Annabeth leaned back as the fireworks started. Making herself more comfortable on the blanket they shared. She promised herself that no one would ever be able to convince her to wear makeup again. She should probably also work on this pride thing too. It always got her into trouble.


End file.
